Sugar bowl sparked lethal rage

Shooting details read

The man who yesterday admitted murdering his uncle and aunt at their home at Pamapuria on May 19 snapped over an accusation that he had left coffee granules in a sugar bowl.

So Judge Greg Davis said in the Kaitaia District Court after 39-year-old Edwin Harvey Maheno pleaded guilty to murdering Ivan Maheno and his wife Carmen Maheno. He was remanded in custody for an appearance in the High Court at Whangarei on August 15, when a sentencing date will be set.

Judge Davis read extensively from the summary of facts, which stated that the defendant and his victims had shared the house Edwin Maheno grew up in, and inherited from his grandmother in 2009.

On the morning of May 19 the defendant overheard a conversation between the victims regarding his inability to stick to domestic chores. Ivan Maheno and his nephew argued, Carmen Maheno joining in and verbally abusing the defendant. The specific issue, Judge Davis said, was the discovery of coffee granules in a sugar bowl, for which Edwin Maheno was accused of being responsible but denied.

The defendant was so incensed by the insults, Judge Davis continued, that he loaded his .22 rifle, pointed it at Ivan Maheno and shot him in the head, despite profuse apologies from the victim, followed by a shot to the right cheek.

Carmen Maheno ran to investigate, and struggled with the defendant, who punched her in the head, struck her in the abdomen with the rifle barrel then in the head with the butt as she crouched on the floor. There was a second struggle as the defendant tried to reload the rifle. When Carmen Maheno heard another round enter the chamber she ran towards a neighbouring farm fence, the defendant chasing her and shooting her in the back of the head, then in the buttocks.

Edwin Maheno then drove away from the house, with the rifle, telling an uncle he met at the bottom of the driveway that he had fatally shot the victims. (Ivan Maheno died at the scene but his wife died at Whangarei Hospital late that night). He then drove to an aunt's house and told her also, before returning to his home, smashing the television set and stamping on Ivan Maheno's body. He collected some items from his room, then, still with the rifle, drove to the Kaitaia police station. When he was unable to find anyone to open a door he drove to his mother's home at Ahipara; unable to find her he returned to the police station and handed himself in.

He immediately stated that he had shot dead two people.

Edwin Maheno told police that he had become angry at the way he had been treated by the victims since they moved into the house shortly after he inherited it, and felt that they were not respecting the family homestead. He had killed them so the property would go to the other siblings.

In court counsel Ken Bailey conceded that a prima facie case had been established, and that his client was fit to plead. His client had never denied his actions, and acknowledged and thanked the court for the opportunity to enter pleas before his people.

"It was important to him to acknowledge his guilt before his whanau and this community," Mr Bailey said, adding that Edwin Maheno's actions were the result of a long-standing , "fundamental" feeling he had had that the wairua that held his world together had been badly interfered with. He fully acknowledged the "wrongness" of his actions, however.